Cover Photo Courtesy of
Syntegon

This article discusses minitablet manufacturing and microtip tooling, including how formulation characteristics and tablet design affect minitablet production; critical tablet press settings and options; and how to determine the proper tablet press overload settings.

Sticking is often described as the Achilles’ heel of tablet production. It is one of the most common tablet tooling problems and can have a profound effect on production, leading to reduced output and increased costs. This article explains why sticking occurs and proposes several solutions.

Counterfeiting is a huge problem in the pharmaceutical industry, where a fake product can not only cause dissatisfaction related to performance but may also cause injury and, in extreme cases, death. When we purchase a pharmaceutical product, we have a high expectation that it is safe, but with counterfeits, this isn’t always the case. Our sense of security is weakened each time a new counterfeit drug product is discovered.

Water activity and moisture content both represent a measure of water in a material. While the terms are often confused with each other, they are two very different parameters, and understanding the difference can be important for the development of robust pharmaceutical formulations. This article evaluates the two parameters and discusses their relevance for the stability of solid dosage formulations.

PharmSci 360, the annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), has gone completely virtual in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual attendees can access the educational sessions, exhibition floor, and other content from October 26-November 5, and all posters, symposia, and career development recordings will be available to registered participants until December 31.

This article describes how COVID-19 and other factors have led to increased risk of interruptions to the US pharmaceutical supply chain and discusses how sourcing ingredients more locally can benefit manufacturers and US consumers.

This article summarizes a method for rapid and accurate determination of API concentration in the fill of soft gelatin capsules with little or no sample preparation. Applying chemometric models to near-infrared spectrum data allows scientists to predict the API content in samples from the manufacturing process and the final product.

This edition of Eye on Excipients describes a study conducted to evaluate the suitability of a novel co-processed excipient for use in orally disintegrating tablets and direct compression tableting. The characteristics evaluated included disintegrability, compactability, stability, and content uniformity.